Voldemort's Daughter
by jUsTp3aChY
Summary: Harry and his friends go back to Hogwarts to finish thier last year and graduate. Of course, they can't just have a normal year. They poor all thier curiosity into a mysterious American. If Malfoys hanging around her, she MUST be trouble! Even if she IS a gryffindor...rated T because I dont really know where im going with it. just read it 8
1. Prologue

Voldemort's Daughter - Prologue

It was August day, just like all the ones before it, when Minerva McGonagall sat down in her headmistress chair to write a letter. There was much work to be done before students arrived on the first of September for the start of a new term. After centuries of teaching young witches and wizards magic, Hogwart's School of Wichcraft and Wizardry usually ran like a well oiled machine, (excluding all the drama Harry and his friends always managed to stir up at the end of every year of course) but You-Know-Who had really thrown a wrench into their plans. After he took over the school and placed his Death Eaters in charge, what attending students had been taught really couldn't have been called an education. EVERYONE would have to go back and repeat the year, which you can imagine caused a big to-do for everyone involved. It also created a lot of extra work for Professor McGonagall, who had finally taken her rightful place as Dumbledore's successor.

The Headmistress dipped her quill in the inkpot and paused with it suspended over the parchment, as if thinking of how best to phrase what she wanted to say. Suddenly a ringing, much like that of a Muggle telephone, reverberated around her office, startling the poor overworked Professor so much that she dropped her quill. She recognized the sound from when Dumbledore had still been headmaster. He had charmed an ordinary calendar to ring like to remind him of important dates and appointments. Sure enough, when she looked over at the wall wear said calendar was still hanging, the square for that particular August day was pulsing a light blue color. McGonagall immediately pushed her chair back and strode closer, curious about what could be so important as to remain on Dumbledore's agenda, even after his untimely demise. She withdrew her wand from her pocket and lightly touched the tip of it to the pulsating square, like she had seen the great man do many times.

"Adrianna VillaFuerte's seventeenth birthday." A professional sounding female voice intoned. The square quit glowing and the calendar returned to normal, but Professor McGonagall's brow furrowed in confusion.

"Seventeenth birthday?" she muttered to herself. "VillaFuerte…I don't know the name. They can't be that important if I don't even know the family. Why would Dumbledore concern himself with someone's birthday anyways?" she continued on in her thoughts. "Though turning seventeen is an important occasion in a wizard's life, it's not like Dumbledore sent a birthday note to all the Hogwarts students. Actually, I'm quite certain that there isn't a VillaFuerte at this school at all." After following her thoughts around in circles for a few more minutes, her curiosity got the better of her. She crossed the room to Dumbledore's portrait and asked him why he had a random person's birthday marked on his calendar, hoping that against all odds he would give her a real answer and refrain from speaking in riddles.

"Ah…I had almost forgotten about her. Seventeen, a full wizard." Albus gazed off into the distance for a moment, not noticing Professor McGonagall growing increasingly impatient for more information. Before she could even ask, Dumbledore snapped back to the present. "She will need to be enrolled here, and will require some special…attention." Blue eyes, piercing even as a portrait, searched McGonagall's. "Minerva, I'm afraid that I haven't shared everything I knew about Voldemort." Albus paused, as though waiting to be reprimanded.

Professor McGonagall, who had been hanging onto his every word and looking very serious moments before now relaxed and threw up her hands. "Oh, Him!" she snorted. "What's there to worry about him? Harry's defeated him and he's gone, for good this time. The way you were talking, I thought you were going to inform me of some impossible new threat to the wizarding world and send me on a mission full of danger and secrecy." McGonagall was so relieved, that a smile even managed to work it way onto her face.

All traces of that smile were wiped out when Dumbledore replied with an undeniable twinkle in his eye, "Why my dear Minerva, not you. Draco Malfoy."


	2. Chapter 1

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

_of_ WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

Headmistress: MINERVA McGONAGALL

Dear Miss VillaFuerte,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted

at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please

find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no

later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

That letter had been waiting for me on my bed when I got back from my daily evening jog. Hogwarts…didn't ring any bells, though it was obviously one of _my_ schools. It was weird that they would be sending me a letter now though, since witches and wizards begin their magical training when they turn eleven, and I had turned seventeen a few days ago. By wizarding standards, I'm an adult! Besides, I already have a school. I go to Wiz Tech, a boarding school in New York City, where most American Wizards get their education. It's not like I'm all that important or anything, I'm not even a good student, so why would this Hogwarts want to break tradition and offer me a place at their school? It didn't make a whole lot of sense.

"Must be some kind of mistake." I decided. Never the less, I lay down on my bed and opened the envelope to reveal two more letters inside. One was the list of supplies that the acceptance letter had mentioned, and the other was another letter from Minerva McGonagall. If the first letter is to be believed, she's the Headmistress of Hogwarts.

Dear Miss VillaFuerte,

I know this is all a little unorthodox, but I

ask you to please consider attending Hogwarts

School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for your last

year of schooling. It is one of the finest schools

in the world, and a generous scholarship will

be provided for you. Do to the unusual nature

and surrounding circumstances of this opportunity,

Should you choose to accept, which I am inclined

to believe you will, I think it necessary that

we meet. Someone will escort you from the

train to my office before our traditional start of

term feast, where we can talk. I urge you to

accept our tutelage.

Sincerelly,

_Minerva McGonagall_

Headmistress of Hogwarts

Nothing about this seemed legit to me. I mean, seriously, some school I'd never even heard of wants me to attend so badly that they break all the rules? But then again, the letter _did_ have an official looking seal… But, I'm not that smart, why would they want to waste one of their precious scholarships on me.

"Maybe they get some kind of government money if they have a certain number of minorities…" I thought to myself. A little voice in the back of my head was whispering to me to hear the lady out. It couldn't hurt, and it's not like I have anything better to do tomorrow.

I'm an American witch, so for seven months out of the year I go to Wiz Tech in New York city to study magic. Like all the other magic schools, it's hidden from Muggle eyes by all kinds of spells and protective wards. The other three months out of the year, I live with my mother in small town Needville, Texas.

Hogwarts…hmmmm.

I went to my laptop and went to , it's the Wikipedia for wizards (can't access it? Must not be a wizard). Let me tell ya, that site's a lifesaver. Skipped too many boring History lessons to go practice some Twelve Ball so you have absolutely no idea what when down in the Leprechaun Wars of 1232 when your professor assigns the essay? Just look it up on Wizardpedia! It's all right there summarized all nice and tidy by some smart kid. Of course, Wiz Tech professors have caught onto this little short cut, so you have to rephrase it, but it's still way better than actually paying attention in class!

So anyways, like I was saying…I went on Wizardpedia and looked up Hogwarts. OMG OMG! ITS IN ENGLAND! HOGWARTS IS A MAGIC SCHOOL IN ENGLAND! And apparently a really good one at that.

Studying abroad does sound intriguing. And I definitely wouldn't mind being surrounded by British accents for a year. Maybe I'm overreacting…In any case, it couldn't hurt to discuss it with my mom…

I hopped off my bed, grabbed my letter, and headed for the hallway. "Mom. MOM. MOM!" I progressively got louder as I headed throughout the house. " hey Ma, there you are." I trailed off as I poked my head into the living room and saw her sitting on the couch watching TV. "Look at this," I handed her the mail before plopping down on the couch next to her.

She looked at it for a while, reading each paper carefully before looking back at me. "Well…Do you want to go?" she asked. No questions, no expressions of surprise, no nothing. Her expression didn't even change, her face was carefully blank.

I was a little taken aback. I mean, really? My notoriously overbearing mother actually wants my opinion on something that affects me? That's a first.

"You mean, I get to decide?" I asked, suspicious.

"Yeah. It's up to you, Lina." She said with the same blank look on her face. She didn't even give me her speech about weighing the pros and cons and making decisions responsibly! Okay, what is going on here, because I'm definitely missing something? If _I _thought it was strange that a school I'd never even heard of was willing to offer me a scholarship so I would attend, there's no way my paranoid mother would accept it without question.

Oh HEY! I bet I know what happened. Mom's always complaining about Wiz Tech's security and how its unsafe and what-not. _She_ probably sent in an application to Hogwarts without telling me. That woman is UPSESSED with safety, and Hogwarts is probably more up to her standards or something, and she really wants me to go. _That's _why she doesn't seem surprised, and _that's_ why she doesn't seem to be thinking on this too hard. She's already thought all this through!

"I…I think I want to go…" I said, trying to figure out what she's really thinking.

Mom nodded her head slowly and looked me straight in the eye, oddly intense. "I think that's a good decision. Hogwarts is the best place for you now." She added cryptically. Yup. She totally applied for me.

Surprisingly, I don't really care. I mean, I've always liked Wiz Tech, in the sense that I've never really had a problem with it, but something about Hogwarts just seems so right. Which is really weird because I'd never even heard of the joint before an hour ago, and even now the only think I really know about it is that it's in England. But hey…accents!

"I'll make the arrangements then. Go owl them back with your acceptance." And with that, she was off. Just like that, the orderly-business-like mom façade was back in place. She'd always been like that. Never going too deep, not wanting to linger on sensitive topics.

I love my mom, but we've never been especially close. She's always trying to keep things for me, like applying to Hogwarts. I'm sure she thinks she's doing what's best for me, but it's annoying. She also doesn't like to talk about the past very much so I know nothing about our past, or even who my father is. I've always been raised in a single parent household, and Mom's never even dated or anything. Whatever went down between her and my Dad must have scarred her pretty badly. I just wish I knew what it was! I don't even have any family or an old friend of Mom's to ask about it. It's always just been her and me, against the world. And anytime gather up the courage to ask her directly she either ignores the questions or says it doesn't matter and not to worry about it. She doesn't recognize my right to know where I come from, and it's infuriating!

I mean, I know she thinks she's protecting me and everything, but UGH!

"On the other hand," I thought on the way back to my room, "She's the one that knows the situation, not me. Maybe she's in the right."

The Ted Bundy story popped into my brain. Bundy was just a regular, everyday guy, who doubled as an especially creepy serial killer unbeknownst to everyone, including his wife. Of course, he was eventually caught, but not before he impregnated his wife. She ended up having a baby girl. She took the baby and moved to a mystery location; somewhere no one would recognize or judge them, changing their names.

Okay, so I don't really believe I'm Bundy's demon spawn, but what if Mom's story is somewhere along those lines? I guess I could understand her a little better then. Her obsession with security, her secrecy, her not dating. If Ted Bundy was my dad, I don't know that I'd want to find out about it. No matter _how _curious or incomplete I'd always felt about not knowing who my father is.

"Wow. Talk about wild tangents." I joked to myself. My brain likes to take my thoughts in weird directions. I mean, I just went from switching schools to being fathered by a serial killer in like…2.9 seconds. Oh well.

I settled down at the desk in the corner of my room and pulled a pen and some paper towards me. "Dear Hogwarts," I began. "I would be delighted…"


	3. Chapter 2

"Nine and three fourths….Nine and three fourths…." I muttered to myself as I walked in circles between Platforms Eight and Nine. How could there be a train leading to Hogwarts in the middle of King's Cross. What if a Muggle accidently gets on it, and winds up in the wizarding world. Now _that_ would be interesting.

I would have smiled at the direction my thoughts had taken, had I not been so stressed out. I had no idea where to go and, according to my watch, I had only ten minutes until the train left. Whether I'm on it or not.

I was seriously beginning to panic when I heard a posh British man saying "Come along Draco, you'll miss the train. What are you doing? Come away from there!" I turned to the speaker in mild curiosity. He was a tall, pale man with cruel grey eyes and long blonde hair beautiful enough to turn any girl green. As I watched, the man tapped the cane he was carrying against his leg impatiently.

I followed his gaze to a 'Draco' who turned out to be a young man, about my age, standing about ten yards away fiddling with a vending machine. He was obviously the first guy's son. Same sharp grey eyes, same tallness, and same gorgeous head of hair, though the boy's was short and slicked back.

I turned back to the father when I heard him speak again. "Don't lower yourself with Muggle food. You can get something to eat on the Hogwarts Express. Hurry up now, or I'll have to deal with you missing it." And with that, the man swept away. By this point, the exchange had earned my full attention. Muggle…Hogwarts Express…these were definitely my kind of people. I was so excited I didn't even notice the prejudices in his words, a subject that I would soon discover to be painfully explosive at my new school.

But for now, I was only concerned about getting on that train.

I tried to keep track of the man so that I could follow him onto Platform 9 ¾ , but he seemed to just disappear. All the excitement I'd felt when I realized these two must be wizards fizzled out. My best chance at getting directions had just disappeared into thin air, and I was no better off than before. Obviously accustomed to having people obey him unquestioningly, the man had just swept away without even bothering to hesitate long enough to check if his son were following.

Wait...his son! The boy was supposed to follow him!

All hope restored, I whirled around and frantically searched for the blonde boy again, his name long forgotten. I spotted him turning away from the vending machine with a Kit Kat in hand. So he'd bought it anyways. What. A. Rebel. You know, not.

Ripping off the paper, he began to move in a way that could only be described as swaggering towards a pillar between platforms nine and ten.

Determined not to lose this one, I followed close behind with my luggage, not even allowing myself to blink. Before my very eyes, I watched him walk right through the pillar, looking as cool as a cucumber – because walking through solid objects is totally and completely normal.

But then again, this _is _the entrance to a magic school we're talking about here. And nothing about _that_ is normal.

So taking a deep breath and hoping I didn't need to know some kind of charm or anything to pass through, I walked through the pillar.

I would up on a platform next to a scarlet train with the words 'Hogwarts Express' emblazoned on the side. So I'd made it! I sighed in relief.

The platform was crowded with people, my future classmates and their families all squeezing in last moment goodbyes. In front of me I could still see the slick blonde hair of the boy I'd followed through the pillar.

"Huh." I thought to myself, going off on another one of my wild tangents. "I wonder if it's charmed so only magical people can get through. And what if a Muggle just happened to lean against that particular pillar at the exact time someone was exiting the platform? Would the Muggle fall through the barrier and onto Platform 9 ¾?"

I turned around and looked back the way I'd come, as though an ordinary person would stumble in just because I'd thought of it. Of course, they didn't.

"Alright Angelina," I said to myself. "Stop thinking about random stuff." I tightened my grip on my luggage and began walking backwards with it, still keeping my eyes on the entrance regardless of having told myself not to. I just really wanted to see what it looks like when someone comes through the barrier, despite the fact that I knew better than to walk without looking.

So I kept on walking backwards until I saw two identical gingers ***(Fred and George)* **emerge through the portal at the same time. It almost looked they were passing through a waterfall instead of a solid pillar, except for the fact that they were completely dry. More and more of them just gradually appeared until they were completely on the platform. My curiosity finally satisfied, I decided it was time to focus on actually getting _on _the train.

As luck would have it, it wasn't until I was about to turn around that I ran into something. Make that someone: the blonde boy I'd been following. I guess I'd gotten closer than I'd thought.

"Oh sorry!" I hurried to apologize. I bent down to pick up the Kit Kat I'd caused him to drop when I heard his reply:

"You should be." He said rudely.

I looked up quickly to see if he was being serious, but his Jesse McCartney reminiscent face was devoid of all expression save for a coolly arched eyebrow. No laughing twinkle in those grey eyes or joking smile on those lips. His grey eyes which I now realized were quite piercing were both literally (he was quite taller than me) and figuratively looking down on me.  
"He's trying to intimidate me!" I realized. Well, it wouldn't work! I don't care who this guy is, or how attractive he looks…it's no excuse to be mean! I HATE rude people!

All the time I'd been studying him, he'd obviously been studying me right back. He didn't even try to hide the way his eyes flickered over me, from head to toe, or the roguish grin that began to cover his face. My guard was instantly up.

Looking down at the Kit Kat I had retrieved and was still holding, I let my temper take over.

"You know what?" I asked rhetorically, looking back up to make sure I had eye contact for what I was about to do. "Never mind. I'm not." Then I tossed the candy bar over my shoulder, hoping it would be rendered inedible even with the assistance of magic. Then I grabbed my suitcase and continued on my merry little way with my nose in the air now that justice had been served, completely ignoring the flame of anger that had flickered in his eyes a moment ago (though my mind did vaguely register that the redheaded twins, whose entrance onto the platform I'd observed, cheering and clapping, presumably at my actions).

I continued to push my way through the crowd, ignoring the fact that I seemed to be the only student without someone to see me off. Cries of "Don't forget to write," and "Be good, I'll see you soon," rang out all around me. The line for boarding the train was long and slow-moving what with everyone saying their final goodbyes and struggling with those ridiculously large trunks everyone but me seemed to have. I mean, come on people! You know they all have enlarging charms done on them so all their stuff would fit anyways. And those charms work just as good on easily maneuverable suitcases as on large, bulky trunks thank-you-very-much!

Anyways, I began eavesdropping on the conversations going on around me, because I was bored and I'm rude like that.

A middle aged woman to my right was chastising a young boy, who couldn't have been older than twelve, for having forgotten to pack something or other.

Two girls in front of me in line were trading an entire summer's worth of missed gossip.

"Can you believe it? They're ***(Ron and Hermione)* **official now. And she's not even pretty." One remarked snottily.

"I don't know, I think it's kind of sweet when best friends wind up together. Besides, her smarts balance out Ron's…lack thereof." They all giggled a little at this.

"Hey! That's a war hero you're talking about there!" Another said in between spirts of laughter. "OH NO! Can you imagine if they have kids? Their poor hair! Absolutely beastly!" At this, their giggles turned into full blown laughter, occasionally punctured by words like frizzy, bushy, and red.

I rolled my eyes and tuned them out, already bored by their gossip about people I don't even know. For goodness sake, it wasn't even juicy stuff! How dumb! If you're gonna gossip, do it right.

As the line inched forward a little more, I began to look for a new discussion to listen in on. I looked around and made eye contact with a familiar face, well, more familiar to me than anyone else here anyways. It was one of the redheads from earlier. His twin was standing right next to him, but he was paying attention the conversation he was having with another redhead next to him. In fact, the twins seemed to be surrounded by redheads. A lot of them. There were only two exceptions: A black-haired boy with glasses and a bushy-haired brunette girl. The original twin blinked sharply and his eyebrows shot up.

"That's her!" He said quite loudly, clearly not caring who heard him. He was pointing over to me. "Over in line for the train. The hottie behind that MacDonald girl. The one with all the black hair. Over there!" His face was completely animated, that's how excited he was. But for what? Just for seeing me? Do 'hottie' new girls really warrant such attention around here?

"Yeah!" His twin counterpart added. "That _is _her!" That's the bird that pissed off Malfoy!"

I did what? Oh goodness…Malfoy must have been that blonde boy from earlier. What a weird name. Wait…I couldn't get in trouble for throwing a candy bar…right? UGH! WHY! WHY DID I HAVE TO LOOSE MY TEMPER LIKE THAT?! It was so stupid! Not even that big of a deal. So the guy was a little rude. Would it have been so bad to just let it go? Ugh! I'd give anything for a time turner right now.

A girl with really long, really pretty red hair stood up on her tiptoes to see over the tops of other people's heads and get a better look at me. "OH! I see her. The one with the funny-looking trunk?" She asked.

OMG! IT'S A SUITCASE OKAY! Ugh! And it's better than your stupid old British trunk.

"Yeah, you make friends with her." One of the twins said.

"You know us Weasley's love a Malfoy hater." The girl replied. At that moment, she seemed to notice that I could see and hear them, so she flashed me a smile and gave me a little wave. Unsure how I should react, I gave her a weird little smile, and turned back around to face the front of the line. Are all British people this weird?

Thankfully, the line was starting to move faster now. Probably because the train was due to leave in five minutes. Anyways, I reached the front of the line fairly quickly. Then, I was faced with a new, and possibly worse problem: where to sit.

This is my first time here; I have no friends to sit with. And what if there are some kind of rules for where to sit? Like back when I was really young and went to a Muggle school, I used to ride the bus. And all the little kids sat at the front of the bus, and all the older ones sat at the back. What if I sat in the wrong part of the train?

Swallowing my insecurities, I walked down the hallway until I found an empty compartment. Trusting that someone (preferable a nice someone, not another rude person) would come along and let me know If there's some kind of rule governing where to sit before I made a complete fool of myself, Iopened the door and dragged myself inside, plopping down on a seat next to the window so I can distract myself from the fact that I'm a currently a friendless loser by looking outside at the scenery flashing by. The first thing on my to-do list? Get some friends.

It wasn't very long until I felt the train start to move. Hogwarts, here I come.

So now I'm faced with a very long, very awkward train ride with nothing to do. I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on this whole train that's not sitting with anyone else. Even though I knew there's a six hour time difference between Texas and London, I took out my phone and started texting some friends anyways. I'd charmed my phone a long time ago so it could reach anyone anywhere, just a little something I'd learned at Wiz Tech. Another popular spell from my old school put like an invisible, magic free bubble around your cell phone, or any other Muggle device you wanted to work. That way, they still work even with all the magic around at school. But I digress…

I had just sent the send button on a generic message of hey when I heard the door to my compartment open. I looked up from my phone, surprised to see the redheaded girl from Platform 9 3/4. She walked right on up to me and stuck out her hand.

"Hi, I'm Ginny." She said brightly.

"Angelina Villafuerte." I replied giving her hand a quick shake. She's confident…I like that. Maybe we really _should _be friends, like that guy on the platform said. The smile she gave me implied that she was nice enough, so I flashed a smile back.

"Do you mind if we sit with you? Everywhere else is full?" She asked.

"Yeah I had the same problem. I had to come to the very end of the tr…wait, we?" I realized halfway through my sentence what she'd said.

"Yeah…Come on in guys." She stuck her head out the door. People slowly began to file into the compartment. "We." She flashed another smile and flipped her long red hair behind her shoulder before turning to the newcomers. Besides Ginny herself, there were two new boys and one new girl. I'm pretty sure they had been in the redheaded group with Ginny back on the platform. "This," Ginny said turning to her companions but gesturing to me like I was a car she was trying to show off, "Is Angelina Villa….Via….something or other." She turned to me apologetically.

"Villafuerte." I laughed. At least she hadn't awkwardly tried to cover up her forgetfulness. I hate those situations where everyone knows what you're doing, but you try and cover it up anyways. Just come right out and ask!

"Right, Angelina Villafuerte. Sorry, I'm terrible with names." There was about a second of silence before she turned back to her friends and said, "Well, go on then. Introduce yourselves." She commanded. Then she tucked her skirt underneath herself primly and sat down directly across from me.

"I'm Hermione Granger." The bushy-haired brunette girl stepped forward and said. "I'm Head Girl this year, so if you need anything, just let me know."

I really didn't know what exactly a head girl was (we didn't have them at Wiz Tech, or in America at all really), but I assumed it was some kind of important position by the proud way she said it, so I just smiled. It must be something along the lines of a class president… "Sorry I can't stay. I have to go up to the front of the train and give the Prefects their orders. But I might be able to come back later. Nice to meet you anyways!" (Prefects?! Man. They've got a lot of positions over here).

"Yeah you two! Maybe I'll see you around." I replied before she turned on her heal and headed back out.

Then it was the tall, redheaded boy's turn. "Ronald Weasley. Ginny here's big brother." He gave me a bit of a wild handshake before turning to struggle with putting his trunk in the overhead compartment.

"Nice to meet you." Now there was only one person left: the dark haired boy with funny looking glasses. He was still standing just inside the doorway, looking like he was trying to just blend in and not be noticed. "And you are." I asked, turning my gaze to him.

It seemed like a common enough, polite thing to say, but all three heads whipped sharply around to look at me.

"Uhh….I'm Harry Potter." He gave me a disbelieving look.

"Lina." I reiterated.

A slow smile spread across the boy's face. "You really don't know who I am, do you?" He asked.

"Uh…no. Sorry." Should I? I asked myself. I quickly thought about it. What if the guy was, like, a rock star or something? It wouldn't do to hurt his feelings by telling him he wasn't quite famous enough for me to have heard of him yet. So I quickly tacked on, "But this is only my first day here. I'm not really up-to-date on what's going down on this half of the world. You do look a little familiar though." I tacked on that lie at the end to make sure his feelings wouldn't be hurt.

If he saw through my shenanigans, he didn't give any sign of it. He had already plopped down in the seat next to Ginny, suddenly much more relaxed than he'd been before. "So, who are you?" I asked.

"Oh…" he started, meeting his friends' eyes with an arched eyebrow behind his glasses. "Nobody special." Even I could tell he was lying. I guess that's just what happens when you come to a school six years too late: You miss stuff. It just goes strait over your head.

There was a short stent of silence when no one really knew what to say. After all the pleasantries had been exchanged I felt comfortable enough around them, but we just didn't know each other well enough yet for conversation to flow naturally.

"So, you're from America, right?" Ginny asked. She seemed genuinely interested, and I suppose she could have just been trying to break the slightly awkward silence that had filled the compartment, but I'm actually pretty sure that she was just trying to distract me from the subject of Mr. Potter. Though I was still _extremely_ curious about _why _I should have known him, I let the subject drop anyways. I'll find out in due time.

"Yup. Texas born and bred." I replied.

"No offense, but what are you doing over here?" Ronald asked.

I laughed at his abruptness before telling them about my mysterious scholarship. "So here I am!" I concluded.

"What year are you?" Ginny asked while swinging her legs onto Harry's lap so she could lounge more comfortably. I raised a mental eyebrow. Were they dating? I hope so. Aw! Look how cute they are together! Despite my curiosity, I wouldn't let myself ask. It would be so awkward if I mentioned it and they weren't together.

"Um…year?" I dragged my mind back onto the conversation. "Well…I was a junior back home if that means anything." Their blank looks were enough to tell me it wasn't.

"Must be an American thing." Harry said with a shrug when the two redheads looked to him to explain. He's definitely the ringleader of this little group.

"Do you know what House you're in yet?" Ron inquired.

"Um, no…I don't even know what that is." The longer these questions went on, the more I felt like an unprepared idiot.

"Every student that goes to Hogwarts becomes part of a House." Harry explained. "Each House has their own dorms and common room. Your House is like your family, and whenever you do good you earn your House point. You do bad, you lose House points. And at the end of the year all the points are tallied up and the winning House gets the House Cup." He paused and looked proudly at his friends. "We've won it six years in a row, except for last year. And that doesn't even count because it wasn't fair."

"What happened last year?" I asked

"Oh…just drama." Ginny dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Tell her about the Houses."

"Well, there's four." Harry began. "Gryffindor – that's what we are-"

"That's the best one." Ronald cut in. "Were dwell the brave of heart."

"Ravenclaw," Harry continued, but Ronald interrupted again.

"That one's not bad either. Probably my second choice. It's where all the really smart people go."

"Slytherin…" Harry tried, only to be cut off again.

"That's the worst one. I'd rather die than be put there." Ronald proclaimed hotly.

"Ron! You shouldn't say stuff like that. You don't know where she'll end up!" Ginny chastised.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." He said, but he didn't sound all that remorseful. But hey! Can't blame a guy for telling the truth! "Anyways, Slytherins are really cunning and sneaky, and only care about themselves." Ron told me, pulling a face.

"And Hufflepuff." Harry didn't even try to finish this time. He just looked over at Ron to explain, so I did two.

"Hufflepuffs are a lot of Duffs. That's where all the leftovers go. It's really not all that special. Mind you, It's still better than Slytherin." He finished with a dark look.

"Oh Ron, you're so dramatic." Ginny rolled her eyes at him before turning back to me. "So, what are you supposed to do for the feast? Your House determines where you sit."

"I'm supposed to meet with the Headmistress as soon as I get off the train. I imagine it's to work all that out." I answered.

"Oh good! Well, hopefully we'll see you around. Even if you aren't in Gryffindor." Ginny said with a warm smile. I gave her one back. She seems like a really nice girl. I can definitely see us being friends, you know, as long as I'm not in Slytherin. Despite her open-minded words from before, something tells me that rivalries run deep between Slytherin and Gryffindor.

The door to the Compartment sliding open interrupted my thoughts. In walked a skinny, wide-eyed blonde girl with her wand stuck behind her ear.

"Ron, Ginny, Harry! So nice to see you again. I'm so glad for another last year at Hogwarts. Just the one didn't seem to be enough…" She said dreamily. She must be a little out of it, because she didn't seem to be making much sense…at least to me she wasn't. "Oh hello!" She stopped as her dreamy eyes landed on me. "Whose this?"

"Hello Luna. Have a good summer?" Ginny asked politely. "This is Angelina. She's new, from America."

"America!" The new girl exclaimed. She came to sit right next to me, and I suddenly became very aware of the fact that she didn't seem to blink. "You have quit the Wrackspurt population over there."

"Uh…we do? Good to know." I said, trying to be polite. I looked over at Harry, Ron, and Ginny to try and gauge their reaction to this newcomer. She seemed just the tiniest bit…Odd.

"This, Angelina, is Luna Lovegood. She's a friend of ours." Harry introduced with a knowing smile. Ron, meanwhile, was spinning his pointer finger around his ear – the universal sign for crazy. Good. So it wasn't just me then.

"Angelina's such a long name." I said once I'd finished giggling. "Most people just call me Lina."

"Lina it is, then!" Ron said. And the rest of the train ride passed in aimless, but friendly, chatter, with Luna occasionally throwing in random comments about stuff that doesn't even exist. Even though a bit crazy, she seemed nice enough – they all did. Hopefully we could still be friends, even after I find out what House I'm in.

"Oh no." I told myself. "Don't go there." I knew that once I'd started worrying about what House I'd be in, I'd never stop. It's better to just not think about it.

"Oh, we're nearly there!" Ginny remarked presently. "We should get changed."

Everyone began rummaging around in their trunks for their robes, and I pulled out my suitcase. Hogwart's attire consisted of robes – black with the Hogwart's crest emblazoned on the chest, and a uniform – dark grey skirt, white button up shirt with a black sweater to go on top, and a tie, though for the opening feast I'd been told that only the robes were required.

"You know," Ron started once we all had our robes on and were back in our seats. "I'm surprised Malfoy hasn't been by for a little visit yet."

"I was just thinking that as well." Harry said. "Perhaps he's ashamed."

"Keeping a low profile as part of some revival scheme more like." Ginny replied. I was surprised by the anger in her voice. Up till now, everything out of her mouth had been nice and sweet.

"Whose Malfoy?" I asked, deciding I'd been kept out of the loop long enough.

"Just some Slytherin prat." Harry said at the same time Ron declared him to be their arch nemesis.

"He is rather rude." Luna added.

"But you've already met him." Ginny said. "My brothers said they say you throw his candy!" Harry, Ron, and Ginny all erupted in laughter. Ron even went so far as to start clapping and say he applauded me.

"Why would you do that?" Luna looked at me and asked, once again, not blinking.

"He was rude to me." I said with a shrug. Aha! Now that overheard conversation makes more sense!

Turning back to Ginny I asked, "So that blonde guy? That was him?"

"Yep. That was Draco Lucius Malfoy, the Slytherine Prince himself." She answered.

"Then the two gingers must have been your brothers." I said, looking pointedly at Ron and Ginny's red hair.

"Fred and George. Their twins." Ron affirmed with a nod.

"Yeah, I picked up on that." Everyone laughed at my reply. At this point, I began to notice that the train was gradually losing speed. We must be _really _close now.

"Their real trouble makers – nice blokes though. Their legendary here at Hogwarts." Harry said with a grin. "You'll probably be hearing a lot about them."

"Half the school's rules were made because of them!" Ron declared proudly. I just laughed. Everyone loves a class clown – or two!


	4. Chapter 3

An hour later found me sitting at the Gryffindor table, in between Luna and the bushy-haired girl whose name I'd forgotten, and across from Ginny, Harry, (Ron was sitting on the other side of bushy-haired girl).

I'd already had my little talk with Headmistress McGonagall, my classes were straightened out, I was found to be in seventh year, and a dirty old hat had declared me to be in Gryffindor. The Headmistress had also informed me that, because Hogwart's curriculum was so different from that at Wiz Tech, that she had appointed me a tutor that I would have to meet with for at least three hours a week. She said she'd owl me with the details later in the week.

She'd also explained to me that the English magical world, including Hogwarts, had been turned a bit topsy turvy by a War they'd just been through. Man, I'm really behind on my current events. She said that everyone that had been at Hogwarts last year had to return to repeat the year to receive credit for it because, apparently, the school had been overrun by hostile forces who focused more on torture than teaching.

As she escorted me to what she called the Great Hall she invited me to owl her should I have any problems. Then, she pointed out the Gryffindor table to me before taking her seat with who I assumed to be the rest of the Hogwarts staff.

Ginny, who'd apparently watched the Headmistress point out their table, waved me over and made me relate everything the Headmistress had said –after having congratulated me on my sorting of course.

Unfortunately, this caused me to miss the "Sorting Hat's" – the very same hat that had sat on my head only a little while ago – song. I did get to watch most of the newbie's sorting though, I've got to admit, - little boring.

A bunch of kids attempting to pass off their nervousness as excitement while waiting to try on a hat that says stuff that no one but them can hear is only interesting for so long. But I digress.

After the sorting, McGonagall gave a rather longwinded speech about rising from the ashes, how house unity is important now more than ever, that we should forgive and forget, and not let the past years' turmoil affect our grades.

I soon found myself tuning out, focusing more on my rumbling stomach and the fact that I hadn't eaten since breakfast than on the Headmistress's lengthy rules and regulations.

I tuned back in just in time to hear her say "Lets eat," then watched as hundreds of dishes magically appeared on the tabled.

"What a cool spell!" I thought silently to myself as everyone began ladening their plates down with food.

Picking up my own plate, I followed suit.

I'd never seen so much good food in one place before!

Wiz Tech's meals had been just about the same as a Muggle School's cafeteria. It offered a few different options, repeating the schedule every week, but none of the food was especially good.

Here, everything was positively scrumptious! So good, in fact, that I refuse to believe that it's not enhanced by magic.

Finally managing to draw my attention onto something other than my plate, I realized that Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione (Luna, I had been informed, was actually a Ravenclaw, so she had gone to sit at her table) were talking to a boy with a kind, rounded face sitting nearby.

Ginny must have noticed my noticing, because she hurriedly moved to include me in the conversation.

"Oh Neville! This is Lina. She's new here. Lina, this is our really good friend Neville Longbottom."

"Hello." Was his friendly riposte as he offered his hand.

"Nice to meet you." I smiled at him as we shook hands, and he smiled back.

"Neville here's a real ace at Herbology. So if you ever need any help, he's your guy." Harry sang his praises, clapping a hand on the boy's shoulder.

I was worried Neville might have been a tad annoyed at having his help offered without his consent, but he fairly glowed at the commendation Harry sent his way.

"Oh really?" I asked, not really knowing what to say.

"Yes, it's what I want to do when I'm done at Hogwarts." Neville told me.

"Just then, a boy that looked about our age from farther on down the table got up and joined our little group.

"Alright there Harry? Weasleys? Hermione?" He asked rhetorically. Is that a Irish accent I detected? "Neville my boy!" He exclaimed, ruffling Neville's hair before plopping down next to him. "I've missed you lot! But who's this?" He asked, his attention now directed towards me.

"Lina, I'm new here." I introduced myself.

"Bit old for a first year aren't ya?" He asked, and I had to laugh at his boldness. Not many people just come right out and say what they're thinking like that.

"I'm a transfer student. Seventh year. I answered with a smile.

"A transfer student?" An Indian girl sitting next to Neville that had obviously been listening in on our conversation asked. "I didn't know that was a thing."

"Me neither." I replied, popping a fork full of mashed potatoes into my mouth and swallowing before elaborating. "One day I just got a letter telling me I'd been accepted here and got some scholarship. Next thing you know, I'm out of Wiz Tech and here I am."

"Huh." The girl said. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you anyways. I'm Parvati Patil. That's my twin Padma over there in Ravenclaw. "If you need anything, just let us know." She offered, pointing over to an identical looking Indian girl who looked over to us and waved.

I smiled at both girls. "People here sure are friendly!" I thought to myself.

"Seamus Finnigan." The Irish boy I'd been talking to earlier declared, pointing to himself. "So you just got an acceptance letter, out of the blue?" He asked, continuing on with our previous conversation. "Bit odd isn't it?"

"Yeah actually, it kind of was." I said with a shrug. "But, oh well."

"wait, you didn't apply or _anything_?" Hermione asked, her interest peaked.

I shook my head no and began to cut the steak on my plate.

"What's the big deal? I didn't apply and I still go here." Harry asked curiously.

"Yes, but that's because you were born in England." Ginny said as though this made perfect sense.

Harry looked at her questioningly, but Hermione was the one to actually explain.

"Every witch and wizard is put down for a school the moment they're born, depending on where they live. Sort of like zones. You live in one zone, you go to this school. You live in another zone, you go to another school." She explained.

Harry nodded along understandingly.

"If you don't like you're school, or if the school in your zone is not up to your standards, you can apply to a different one. If they accept you, you can transfer. You're sure you didn't apply to Hogwarts?" She asked again, turning to me, looking suspicious.

"Well, I guess my mom could have and not told me about it. I just think it's weird that she would wait seventeen years to switch my schools." I replied.

I really don't know why this chick was so interested in all these details of my life. They're really not all that interesting. No one else seemed concerned, just Hermione. Perhaps she's just naturally inquisitive?

"You're seventeen? Hermione asked, as though some huge puzzle piece just fell into place.

"Yup. Got my full powers last month." I really didn't want to be rude to a potential friend, but I found my attention wavering away from Hermione. I did notice her purposefully catch Harry's eye and raise an eyebrow.

He, on the other hand, looked thoroughly lost at the significance of my coming of age. Obviously I'm not the only one that didn't understand what Hermione was getting at.

He shot her a questioning look, and she opened her mouth, probably to elaborate, when my phone went off.

Every head within hearing range turned in my direction as I pulled the still ringing electronic from my pocket. It was a text from Alex Russo, my best friend back at Wiz Tech. She was just now answering my text from hours earlier on the train, when I had been sitting, bored, all by myself.

_[Sorry, I was sleeping]._ It said. Sleeping was one of Alex's favorite activities, along with mischief making, an making out with her werewolf boyfriend Mason.

Yup, she's certainly a character!

_[Otherwise I would have totally magiced myself over there to hand with you. Why text when you can have the real deal?]_

Typical Alex, never concerned with rules and regulations. She keeps life interesting.

_[It's cool, I know you NEED that beauty sleep! Lol jkjk. Besides, it forced me to actually meet a few of my new classmates.] _I texted back.

When I hit the send button and looked up, I realized everybody-and-their-mom was looking at me. All ongoing conversations within our group had stopped while I texted.

Where phones not allowed during dinner? Was something on my face? Internally, I began to panic, but I kept my cool.

"What?" I asked the table in general. Harry mutely gestured to my phone, which now lay on the table in plain view. "My phone? What about it?"

As it turns out, this half of the wizarding world didn't do phones. At all.

This came as a huge shock to the typical American teenager attached-to-my-phone-at-the-hip part of me. How do these people even _live_?

Harry and Hermione, as it turns out, were both raised by Muggles, so they at least knew what it was. But the Weasleys and most of the others had no idea.

After a good fifteen minutes of explaining the awesomeness that is cell phones, Hermione pulled me out of my own conversation to ask how it managed to work here at Hogwarts – the magic should have been rendering it useless.

I could tell she'd been wrestling with her curiosity for some time now, so I explained all about the spell all us Wiz Tech kids used to keep our electronics safe.

At least she'd finally moved on from the subject of my transfer.

Everyone was completely mind blown. I guess they don't have much in the way of technology here. They're loss!

Naturally, this led to a conversation about how different Wiz Tech is from Hogwarts. From what I can tell the American magical uses the Muggles to improve our world, instead of simply hiding away from them like the European wizards do. I mean, Muggles still don't know we exist or anything, but we live much more closely with them.

Wizards in training go to muggle as well as magical schools until they either graduate or get old enough to drop out. And many of us even have really good friends that have no idea about the world of magic. The magic doesn't take over our lives, it's just a small aspect. We kind of built our world around the Muggle world.

I was texting Alex back and forth all throughout dinner, each time eagerly observed. They were fascinated…I was a hit!

We were almost through with our deserts when Dean Thomas – a black guy about our age that had joined us halfway through the meal – turned and invited me to a welcome back party this Friday night.

"It's going to be excellent." He said. "All of Gryffindor's invited, along with the less prickish Ravenclaws and a select few Hufflepuffs."

"No…uh…what are they called? Slytherys?" I asked, snapping my fingers in the direction of the fourth House table that I'd noticed hadn't been mentioned. I couldn't quite remember what Harry had called them on the train.

Everyone giggled – not rudely, just in an amused way.

"You mean Slytherin." Hermione corrected with a smile.

"Course they're not invited. Bloody gits." Ron declared darkly. Now I remembered the prejudice I'd detected back on the train.

Everyone began talking at once, saying how evil and cruel the Slytherins all are, and that they couldn't be trusted.

It seemed to be the general view that all Slytherins are evil, and that they'd been the bad guys in that war they'd just had but, since I hadn't been there, I reserved my judgment for latter.

"Well, I think it's a shame that we're not going for a bit of House unity like McGonagall said." Hermione eventually declared. I'd noticed she'd been mysteriously absent during the Slytherin bashing. "Even if the activity we're participating in is against the rules." Hermione couldn't help herself from tacking that last sentence on there at the end. Something tells me Hermione's a straight arrow.

"They would only ruin it, Hermione." Ron claimed.

"Yeah, they would just turn around and stab us all in the back. Tell Filch and get us all detention or something. It's better to just leave them out of it." Harry agreed.

"Silly me. I thought we just fought a war so that EVERYONE could be equal. Didn't know we were being selective with that." Was Hermione's cool rebuttal.

That shut everyone up.

A distinctly awkward silence permeated our little group for a minute or two before Seamus took it upon himself to break it.

"Still Lina, you should go. This Friday, nine o'clock in Professor Umbridge's old fake headmistress's office. Harry will show you." HE said in response to my lost look.


End file.
